Point Lobos State Natural Reserve near Carmel, Calif.

CaptionPoint Lobos State Reserve

Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Groves of Monterey Cypress cover the rocky shoreline at Point Lobos State Reserve, three miles south of Carmel. Admission to the reserve is $10 a car. Many visitors dodge that cost by parking along Highway 1 and walking in.

Groves of Monterey Cypress cover the rocky shoreline at Point Lobos State Reserve, three miles south of Carmel. Admission to the reserve is $10 a car. Many visitors dodge that cost by parking along Highway 1 and walking in. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

If the Lone Cypress stands for persistence, beauty and grace amid adversity, its distant cousin, the Old Veteran cypress of Point Lobos, stands for a grittier sort of staying power. The Old Veteran hunkers down on a cliff top, its trunk bleached nearly white, roots groping the air, branches...

If the Lone Cypress stands for persistence, beauty and grace amid adversity, its distant cousin, the Old Veteran cypress of Point Lobos, stands for a grittier sort of staying power. The Old Veteran hunkers down on a cliff top, its trunk bleached nearly white, roots groping the air, branches... (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)